Swans' cost-of-living allowance on way out, but rent subsidy on way in

Chief Football Writer for The Age

Sydney's controversial cost-of-living allowance will be removed by the start of the 2017 season but the AFL will compensate the Swans with a new rent subsidy, which the league will pay directly to footballers earning less than the average players' wage.

However, Greater Western Sydney appears to have been successful in its push to retain an additional $1 million in its salary cap, which the AFL will continue to support in recognition of the unique challenges faced by the Giants as they battle to establish themselves. GWS players will also receive the rental subsidy from the start of 2017.

The cost-of-living allowance that affords the two Sydney-based clubs an extra 9.8 per cent worth of salary cap room will be phased out - in the Swans' case over 2015 and 2016 - with all existing contracts, including Lance Franklin's, to be honoured going forward.

Instead the AFL will directly allocate an estimated $15,000 to every player on the lower side of the wage spectrum. By 2017 the qualification ceiling for rent subsidy is expected to include all footballers earning below an annual $300,000.

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While the Swans were disappointed at the dilution of their salary cap allowance they have now accepted as inevitable the gradual reduction of their extra total player payments money. Sydney has put all contract talks on hold until after the June 4 meeting of all 18 clubs.

The radical changes to the Swans' payments structure will be rolled out as part of the competition's new equalisation formula. The details will be revealed as Andrew Demetriou's final major task as AFL chief executive and will see wealthier clubs taxed for exceeding a new cap of football department spending. The wealthier clubs will also pay a ''Robin Hood''-style tax into the equalisation pool.

While the Giants are still lobbying the AFL to retain an additional $1 million on top of their total player payments, the club has insisted it will struggle without that salary cap relief in its expansion phase. Club chairman Tony Shepherd said on Tuesday he remained cautiously confident his club would retain the additional salary cap money.

Fairfax Media understands the salary cap relief afforded the Giants has resulted in the Gold Coast pushing unofficially for additional expansion funding in its total player payments, which the AFL is expected to reject.

The Brisbane Lions lost their extra salary cap funding after it was phased out in a three-year period after the club's successive premierships between 2001-03. While the AFL has rejected a suggestion Brisbane could again receive a player retention allowance that club will be a prime beneficiary of the new equalisation formula.

The June announcement by the AFL comes after Shepherd's Giants officially distanced themselves in February from the Swans in terms of their joint push to retain the cost-of-living allowance.

The recruitment of Franklin ended the joint attempts by the two clubs to align in their fight to retain the extra salary cap money. Shepherd told Fairfax Media in February: "The Swans have been in Sydney for more than 30 years and it can be argued that, as an established club, they no longer need additional support.

"In Franklin, they have made the longest and largest investment ever in a player. You don't make those type of decisions without having complete confidence in your business model. You shouldn't need those decisions subsidised by head office."

Shepherd added it would be unfair if the Giants were stripped of their cost-of-living allowance due to the fallout from the $10.2 million, nine-year Franklin deal.

Those comments further strained relations between the two clubs. The Swans had employed the services of international consultants to demonstrate their genuine case for extra money to cover the added expense of living in Sydney, a fact the AFL has acknowledged with its new rent allowance.

Swans players coming out of contract at the end of 2014 include veterans Adam Goodes, Lewis Roberts-Thompson, Ryan O'Keefe and Nick Malceski and also Craig Bird, Mike Pyke, Alex Johnson and Rhys Shaw.